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" Beyond Google - AddThis Posted by Mr. Byrne at 2:12 PM Labels: Google, Internet search, teaching technology, Teaching With Technology, Technology Integration, web search, web search strategies 5 comments: SIS Media Specialist said... Geesh Richard, another great resource; like your posts are not enough. Many, many thanks. I have followed your blog for about a year and have learned SO MUCH. I understand you are from CT. Any chance we can get you to the joint annual CASL/CECA (Connecticut Association of School Librarians and Connecticut Educators Computer Association) conference next year? October 24, 2009 10:35 PM Mr. Byrne said... Yes, I am originally from Connecticut. In fact, I went to CCSU for freshman year. I'd like to come to CASL/CECA. Can you send me an email? richardbyrne (at) freetech4teachers Thanks. October 25, 2009 6:47 AM Linux and Friends said... Thanks for the amazing document. I am aware of a few of the resources listed in the document. However, many of the others are new to me. I will definitely check them out. November 2, 2009 9:45 PM dunnes said... I visited and bookmarked four sites from this post! Thank you for the great resource. Students want to use Google rather than stick to the school library catalog, but they need more instruction on how to do this. I have seen too many children search with ineffective terms, and then waste time clicking on their random results. November 8, 2009 12:38 PM Lois said... Beyond Google is a great resource. I wish I had your skills for taking what you learn and putting it together as you do. I love reading your daily blog. November 15, 2009 10:04 AM Post a Comment Links to this post Beyond Google: Improve Your Search Results http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/10/beyond-google-improve-your-search.html While working with some of my colleagues in a workshop earlier this week, I was reminded that a lot of people aren't familiar with tools

This is a visual search engine which shows the front page of each of the web pages in your search - pretty cool! As you scroll sideways it flicks through each page. It also gives you a list of categories you can click on first to refine your search - good for students to use.

Internet Great site for explaining all the different search engines

Great site that explains the advantages and disadvantages of various search engines.

Describes features of DuckDuckGo, Blekko, Wolfram Alpha, and Bing and quick ways to use them in different browsers.

Clearly explains how the Google search engine works - why you get the results you do, and why something you've created might not come up when you search for it.

"Yes, if you really want to go into those little hidden lanes of the web you need to keep a roster of alternative search engines close by. Here's a roll call of some search engines which can grab for you what even Google can't."

"The feature that I've found most useful is the ability to order search results. If you are doing searches by date, as my students were, Blekko allows you to add the slashtag "/date" to the end of your query and retrieve information in a chronological fashion. "

choose the best search for your information needs

Awesome page for finding the correct search engine or directory for your need!

Match your search tool with your information need.

in Glogster...fabulous! from Joyce Valenza--she says a prototype!

Fabulous!!! Great idea, too!

search engine for kids' questions Why is the sky blue....? etc.

"An eye tracking experiment revealed that college student users have substantial trust in Google's ability to rank results by their true relevance to the query. When the participants selected a link to follow from Google's result pages, their decisions were strongly biased towards links higher in position even if the abstracts themselves were less relevant. While the participants reacted to artificially reduced retrieval quality by greater scrutiny, they failed to achieve the same success rate. This demonstrated trust in Google has implications for the search engine's tremendous potential influence on culture, society, and user traffic on the Web."

Inside recent changes to the Google algorithm. This excellent post gives an overview of recent changes (500+) made over the past few weeks.

A handy site to search for apps for Chrome, mobile phones, iPads, and more. 

"search engine for images, mostly ones that have a Creative Commons license. It's design is very attractive and easy to use. The key reason I like it, though, is because when you want to use one of their photos, it automatically shows whatever permissions are required."